A vapor chamber is a heat-transfer device that combines principles of both thermal conductivity and phase transition to transfer heat from regions of relatively high thermal activity (e.g., central processing units and graphical processing units) to areas of relatively low thermal activity where the heat collected by the vapor chamber may safely flow from the system (e.g., a fan cooled heat sink). A vapor chamber typically includes a hermetically sealed housing fabricated from a metal or metallic compound, such as copper or copper containing compounds, that demonstrate a very high thermal conductivity. The vapor chamber is charged with a fluid that vaporizes to absorb externally applied heat and condenses to safely reject the heat, generally to a location remote from the heat source. In some instances, a porous wick material such as a sintered metal may be disposed on the internal sidewalls of the vapor chamber. In such implementations, the porous wick material facilitates the transport of condensed fluid within the vapor chamber through capillary action. Conversely, open space within the vapor chamber facilitates the transport of vaporized fluid within the vapor chamber.
Metallic vapor chambers offer fairly high thermal conductivity at a relatively low cost and have found widespread use in desktop and portable computing systems where the presence of large metallic objects does not present objectionable interference with routine operation of the device. However, in smaller devices such as smartphones, handheld, and wearable computing devices, the presence of a rather large metallic object such as a vapor chamber may compromise the performance of the device to an unacceptable degree.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art.